Cloud Desktop

Cloud computing is a collection of distributed services, applications, information and infrastructure and involves providing hosted services over the internet. These services can be rapidly organized, provisioned, implemented and decommissioned using an on-demand utility. Cloud has come as a boon for small and medium businesses who cannot afford large investment on infrastructure and applications. Today Cloud is fast becoming important for IT needs–a development that spells change for IT managers looking to leverage the cloud and rethink their data center strategies.

A cloud service has a distinct advantage over traditional hosting.

* It is sold on demand – Pay as you use model, a user can have as much or as little of a service as they want at any given time

* The service is fully managed by the service provider.

* Provides significant innovations in virtualization and distributed computing, as well as improved access to high-speed Internet.

India is fast emerging as the cloud computing services provider and there is a $1 billion worth of opportunity waiting to be tapped. Users of cloud computing services do not have to purchase hardware or software for his IT related need but is provided by the cloud computing service provider and is charged a factional amount of the cost for the using hardware or the software.

Regardless of the size all companies are looking to leverage the benefits doled out by using cloud based services. Managed service providers are in great demand by SMB’s and can they can customize the services based on the need of the client. There are many benefits that cloud computing offers; fast deployment, scalability, business agility, lower costs, these are some of the main advantages enabled by the cloud.

When a company decides on the type of the cloud it should opt for on-demand public cloud services (Cloud Services on Public Internet), Hybrid Cloud (Public Cloud Services extended to an enterprise’s dedicated IT infrastructure over secure (VPN) or Private Cloud (Dedicated Cloud Services for an enterprise)and the three service models of cloud service; Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that can best suit its infrastructure and business needs, the next big decision is narrowing the choice down to one cloud vendor who can provide the service that brings the best results both in terms of cost and performance.

What are the Advantages of choosing a cloud computing service provider?

If you are selecting the right service provider, you can obtain numerous benefits. Some of these benefits are:

* Cost – The major benefit of moving to the service provider is the cost factor. If you are opting for shared hosting the cost is greatly reduced as you are sharing the resources with many clients. MSP’s are challenged to show the customer’s, savings specific to their environment, by detailing the cot breakup. So if you are on a tight budget moving to the cloud can be a good option.

* Security – Data security is of utmost importance to any organization. Ensure that the service provider provides for the best security firewalls for your data. Check whether all precautionary measures are in place and followed by cloud hosting providers to keep their servers safe from any kind of security breach.

* Utilization of Resources – As you are paying for the resources ensure optimum utilization of these and see that the server time is not wasted. As the server occupation will be high, the memory as well as other resources will be put to a maximum usage.

* Support – Support is a critical to the success of any venture in today’s networked environment. Evaluate the type of technical support and services offered by various cloud hosting service providers. Make sure that the service you are opting for can give you 24/7 dedicated technical and emergency support when you need it.

Although there are hundreds of cloud computing providers in the arena, but when it comes to evaluating a cloud vendor it is critical to have thorough understanding of their offerings and total costs of solutions. Do a thorough background research on the cloud computing service provider and make sure they have a good standing in the market.

Why is cloud computing the newest buzz term? What value does it bring to organizations? “It’s become the phrase du jour. The problem is that (as with Web 2.0) everyone seems to have a different definition. The “cloud” is obviously a metaphor for the internet but when you add in the term “computing” the whole phrase gets muddy. However, when you think of the needs of an organizations IT structure it starts to become clearer.

The concept of cloud computing is a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT’s existing capabilities. Cloud computing is location-independent computing, whereby shared servers provide resources, software, and data to computers and other devices on demand. Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption, and delivery model for IT services based on the Internet, and it typically involves over-the-Internet provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources. It is a by product and consequence of the ease-of-access to remote computing sites provided by the Internet. This frequently takes the form of web-based tools or applications that users can access and use through a web browser as if it were a program installed locally on their own computer. Most cloud computing infrastructures consist of services delivered through common centers and built on servers. Clouds often appear as single points of access for consumers’ computing needs. Commercial offerings are generally expected to meet quality of service (QoS) requirements of customers, and typically include service level agreements (SLAs).

There’s a good chance you’ve already used some form of cloud computing. If you have an e-mail account with a Web-based e-mail service like Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or Gmail, then you’ve had some experience with cloud computing. Instead of running an e-mail program on your computer, you log in to a Web e-mail account remotely. The software and storage for your account doesn’t exist on your computer — it’s on the service’s computer cloud. The applications of cloud computing are practically limitless. With the right middle-ware, a cloud computing system could execute all the programs a normal computer could run. Potentially, everything from generic word processing software to customized computer programs designed for a specific company could work on a cloud computing system. Why would anyone want to rely on another computer system to run programs and store data? Here are just a few reasons:

Clients would be able to access their applications and data from anywhere at any time. They could access the cloud computing system using any computer linked to the Internet. Data wouldn’t be confined to a hard drive on one user’s computer or even a corporation’s internal network.
It could bring hardware costs down. Cloud computing systems would reduce the need for advanced hardware on the client side. You wouldn’t need to buy the fastest computer with the most memory, because the cloud system would take care of those needs for you. Instead, you could buy an inexpensive computer terminal. The terminal could include a monitor, input devices like a keyboard and mouse and just enough processing power to run the middleware necessary to connect to the cloud system. You wouldn’t need a large hard drive because you’d store all your information on a remote computer.
Corporations that rely on computers have to make sure they have the right software in place to achieve goals. Cloud computing systems give these organizations company-wide access to computer applications. The companies don’t have to buy a set of software or software licenses for every employee. Instead, the company could pay a metered fee to a cloud computing company.
Servers and digital storage devices take up space. Some companies rent physical space to store servers and databases because they don’t have it available on site. Cloud computing gives these companies the option of storing data on someone else’s hardware, removing the need for physical space on the front end.
Corporations might save money on IT support. Streamlined hardware would, in theory, have fewer problems than a network of heterogeneous machines and operating systems.
If the cloud computing system’s back end is a grid computing system, then the client could take advantage of the entire network’s processing power. Often, scientists and researchers work with calculations so complex that it would take years for individual computers to complete them. On a grid computing system, the client could send the calculation to the cloud for processing. The cloud system would tap into the processing power of all available computers on the back end, significantly speeding up the calculation.